Tony tests out the public health system

By developing a sharp and rather intense pain in his right side.  So off the Mackay hospital at 7.30pm and by the time we got there the pain was rather intense, they treated him for kidney stones and 20mg of morphine and a couple of panedine later things were starting to improve.  Headed out of there with an appointment for a CT scan and a few sick bags as the morphine was starting to show it ugly side.  So the next day was sleep, sleep, sleep for Tony and housework and reading and blobbing and blogging for me.

Whats in a name

Well everything if your name is Sandfly Creek, shame we couldn see the name as we pulled up in the dark the night before because it certainly lived up to its name.

Had a troll around Mackay even though it was a public holiday and then had a look at some of the northern beaches – Shoal Point, Bucasia and Eimeo. 

Heading for Mackay

Called into a few beaches along the way – Sarina was beautiful, Tony went for a swim while I played in the rock pools with some very pretty nemo fish.  Stayed the night at a lookout and watched 26 ships waiting to be load with coal, they were still there in the morning and according to the local there have at times been up to 100 ships waiting – that would be a fairly amazing sight.  Decided to continue our coal journey and left for Sarina and heading to Hay Point Port.  They have a public viewing lookout and from there we could see the coal operation of the port.  There are 2 coal terminals with offshore wharfs, 1 stretches 1.8km out to see and the other an impressive 3.85km.  Together they handle 130m tonnes of coal each year which is brought into the port via trains over 2km in length – quite an impressive operation, and one which Tony really enjoyed seeing.

Eye Spy, Hangman and Spotlighing

As it gets dark pretty early here it makes it a little difficult to find entertainment during the evenings – we are a little limited to what George can offer.  The lighting at picnic spots can sometimes be good and sometimes crappy and then there are the mosquitos to contend with – so its often early to bed.  We have devised some interesting games – eye spy is a challenge in the dark, hangman is equally challenging without pen and paper – Tony is sure I would be hung more often than him and he is probably right – but hey no light, no pen and paper equals no record.  We also go spotlighting, this usually occurs when one of us hears an ominous buzzing and then the wee light hand held light goes on and the hunt is on – my kill rate so far is higher than Tonys which could probably be because I have more revenge to seek than he does.

Things that go bump in the night

Left Yeppoon and headed back to Rockhampton – found a laundromat and did some washing but decided it was still such a sunny day that we could get things dry outside – just needed to find a suitable spot to put up a clothes line – Kershaw gardens did the trick – a bit close to the highway but no one complained, we probably gave the holiday makers something to talk about to break their journey – hmm we could have even charged for the free entertainment.  Got our clothes 80% dry (still forget a bit about the early nights) and thought we would head up to Mt Archer for the night.  A bit of a slog for George but rather him than me!!  Got to the top just before dusk and had tea then decided to go for a walk – I took my trusty little keyring torch along.  Got to what we thought was the end of the track and admired the magnificent views of Rockhampton by night and then we heard rustlings in the trees and then there were snortings and then ‘The Wild Things’ came out, no just tricking – we actually didn’t stay around to find out we fast tracked it back to the safety of George.  The next morning we went for a walk and saw some kangaroos so decided it was probably them that we heard the night before.

George goes 4 WDriving

Yeppoon is a pretty place with lots of walks and a beach which apparently is crystal clear and blue usually, the fact that it currently looks like pig swill is due to the floods and continuous rain.  Did a 5.3km circuit walk on the way into Yeppoon which took us up to a lookout where we saw turtles swimming below – very cool.

Walked another track which took us past fan rocks which are the result of volcanic activity – also very cool until Tony decided kiwi needed a ‘Tony adventure’ and I stressed in case he fell off!!!!!!  Tony most definitely would have been in for an adventure then to rescue him.

hot work all this walking!!!!!

Kiwi on the edge

Saw some quite odd looking ‘structures’ in the trees – they looked like a ball made of leaves and we wondered what had made them, we were lucky enough to see another one close up and realised that it was an ants nest – Tony thought he might ‘knock on their door’ and see if anyone was home – hmmmm most certainly they were – I have told him that they will have sent the message around and will definitely be out to get their revenge (I just hope they realise I was an innocent bystander!!!!)

Thought we would go for a bit of a drive and check out the local area – Sandy Point looked as if it could be a bit of us, almost had second thoughts when we came to the off road section, but confident that George would cope we continued but things only got worse and then we got to the sign that said we could only go 20km – well that was almost laughable considering we were only going about 5km to start with, however we pushed on encouraged by the sign that said it was only 5.8km to go – an hour later with only 600m under our belt we decided that enough was enough and we turned around.

We will never know what was at the end of that road but there was some quite pretty wetlands at the beginning of the track – hmm maybe we should have stopped before we even started!!!!!

Thanks to the Lions club of Yeppoon we spent some time cooking at their very nice facility – great bbq’s, great shelter and power.

We had also noticed that during our morning and nightly cooking sessions a lot of bats were coming and going, talking to one of the locals we discovered that their ‘home’ was just down the road – so we went to check them out – 1000’s of them, smelly and noisy even though in theory they were supposed to be asleep.

Singing Ships

Spent a short time in Rockhampton and then because it was raining decided to head to Emu Park – a wee beach town with not a lot to offer except an amazing singing ship. The huge white monument commemorates Captain cooks adventures around the area and is partly constructed out of pipes which make a beautiful sound in the sea breeze.

Fantastic new friends

A very special thanks to Clive and Glenna for their wonderful hospitality over the past week or so,  it was wonderful to go aboard Chimo and hear about some of your world travels.  Tony especially enjoyed hearing about her and for me, well it was the first time I had ever been aboard a yacht so it was pretty special.

Chimo

A Tony adventure!!!!!

From Tannum Sands we headed to 1770, stopping at Agnes Water on the way, nice beach but not much else other than a heap of backpackers.  Would have gone for a swim if the tide wasnt so far out.

At 1770 we went to the lookout and fell in love with the spot, spending a few hours there.  Went for a walk checking out 2 lookouts,

Track One

- the second appealed the most and was the beginning of a 'Tony adventure'.  We had seen some people fishing on the rocks and could see that there was an obvious but unmarked track past one of the lookouts.  As I discovered it was a bit narrow and had a sheer drop down the cliff face to the rocks/sea below.  all was going not too bad until we reached this point.....

It was here that I decided I was going no further and it was here that Tony decided I was going around the point - luckily for us both we spotted a hole a bit further back from the edge which I managed to squeeze through.

Once on the other side a view was spectacular and well worth it.

Awesome spot



Muesli Bar reward!!!!!



View from the carpark - you can just see the sort of like cabbage tree on the cliff edge in the middle of the photo

After we left the lookout we headed down to the estuary for a picnic lunch and where the 'Tony adventure' was to continue - where he decided he should plant me up a mangrove - I guess at least it wasnt as challening as the rock face - i just had to work out where to plant myself!!!!

Headed back up to the lookout carpark to watch the sunset and as we had a bit of time to fill in we played around with taking photos.

On our way back to Tannum sands we went to check out LakeAwoonga and the dam.  The dam was the best we had seen so far but certainly nothing like what we get to see in NZ.  The Lake was rough and not very appealing with swimming areas which were nothing to rave about.  Our trip here nearly cost us a $300 fine for Tony not wearing a seatbelt.

Awoonga Dam - awesome patterns

Millennium Park Picnic area - Tannum Sands

From Gladstone we drove over to a spot which was recommended -Tannum Sands - quite a cool trip in that we travelled over the Boyne River and onto Hampton Drive (Boyne being the surname of one of our neighbours and Hampton being the street we live in).  We pulled into Millennium Park - what an awesome spot, on arrival we took a plunge in the sea and swum in the hole between the sand dunes (safe spot ie no sharks, alligators, stingrays etc)  have spent a few days using this park as a base.  We have met some great people - a beautiful spot to swim, relax, eat, shower and generally chill out.  I loved the turtle judder bars - Tony didnt think they were so cool and not that good for George.



Night shot of scultpture in the park



Turtle judder bars in the park



Millenium park - a great place to relax


George gets a bath

Much of the road from Mt Perry to Monto was on gravel - our first gravel roads since leaving NZ, although I have to say the gravel road was actually in better condition that the main roads, thanks to the floods.  Also worked out that grids in Australia are actually cattle stops - lots of long mile grazing between Mt Perry and Monto = lots of grids.  So on arriving in Monto we found a spot were we managed to give George a wash.

Headed off to Cania Nationa Park and dam - we have discovered that in general unlike NZ where you can actually get quite close to the dams Austalian dams so far are quite different and we havent been able to see an awful lot.  It didnt help that for the first hour we were pretty closed in by fog.

The lake was an old gold mine which was turned into a dam in 1982, since this time it has never reached its 88,500 megalitre capacity - until this year when it overflowed!!

Went for a short walk to see the Shamrock mine - some cool old equipment and a couple of old mine shafts - note the orange danger fencing - Tony!!

Same goes for the walk - did a 5.2km walk in the Cania Gorge to the Giants Chair, saw some nice wee creeks along the way and towering sandstone cliffs but were a little disappointed in general.  The signage and descriptions are certainly not as good as NZ.



Giants Chair lookout - Cania Gorge - looking out at sandstone cliffs

 So next stop Gladstone, where we found a nice spot for tea - once again free bbq's and this time an awesome sunset to go with it.

Mt Perry we love you

We enjoyed looking through the Boolboonda Tunnel, a 192m tunnel carved by hand way back in 1883.  it used to be part of a railway link but is now home to hundreds of bats.  At first we weren’t sure that George would make it through the tunnel as the entrance was a big mud puddle but a kindly local reassured us that the puddle was only 8inches deep and the ground was solid rock – extra reassuring for me that George could make it as it was seriously looking like Tony was determined to walk through and I can tell you I could see those bats flying around and I definitely wasn’t keen – George and I have a special affiliation now!!  A

If you look carefully you can see the bat

fter we spent some time ooing and aaing over the bats and tunnel we headed to Mt Perry – breakfast was first up at an awesome picnic spot, great tables, great bbq, a bonus of a laundromat which didn’t cost a fortune AND hot showers – OMG our first laundry and hot shower in 12 days – I have to tell you I was in heaven J

Hitch hiker

This wee fellow travelled on the outside of Georges window from Gin Gin to the Boolboonda Tunnel – a distance of 21km – cheeky little sod I should have charged him a George fare.

Minimalistic

Is that even a word???  Anyway it suddenly occurred to be that my entire wardrobe for a year is contained within these two wee cupboards – hmm I wonder how come it doesn’t work like this at home.

My 2 650 x 300 cupbaord spaces for the year!!!!!

Next leg - photos to come

Burrum heads

Childers - visited the Palace backpackers which was famous in 2000 for the fire where 15 young people died.  Also called into the Old Pharmacy which had stocks of pharmeceuticals dating back to last century - lotds of Rawleigs products that you still see even today.  Checked out the ice cream factory which was a bit pathetic.



Woodgate were we saw our first kanagaroo and then another and another and now there not cool any more. 



Also saw some amazing birdlife and a couple of goananas.  Walked the Banskia Track a 5.4k circuit of banksia trees - sort of pretty in its own right. Drove out to Walker Point hoping to do another walk but access was only by 4WD and George is just not up to that standard.



Road to Bundaberg where curiosity finally got the better of me and we had to stop to chack out the huge mounds of ....... on the side of the road - they were termite mounds and Tony couldnt resist stirring them up a little - very impressive structures i have to say - he also managed to wind up an ants nest - and then we quickly moved on!!!!!

Port Bundaberg at Burnett Heads which had some massive sugar cane sheds.

Mon Repos and the turtle rookery - turtles have all gone though but we did have a sort of a nice swim in a sort of a rock pool.

Bargara - a pretyy little seaside town where we had fish and chips on the beach for tea.

Coral Cove where we hoped to do some snokeling and see coral etc but it was not to be - Tony is not too keen on being out in the open sea!!!!! - Sharks

Now in Bundaberg and I have to say we are not too impressed - will give it a day and then maybe revise our thoughts.

Head count

6 kangaroos
3 wallabies
untold spiders
2 goana
2 snakes
0 koala

Rain please go away we have had enough of you

Spent a few hours driving down the Bruce Highway – had quick visits to Mooloolaba which was quite a nice coastal town then Maroochydore, Coolum, Noosa and Maryborough none of which impressed that much. 

Headed for the coast again, destination Hervey Bay which a very nice lady at the information centre told us was worth visiting.  Yep it felt like us from the moment we headed into town.  Followed the road along the beach front for a while until we ended up in Urangan where we found a nice Lions (sorry Rotary) Park to have breakfast.  There is an awesome pier here, about 70yrs ago it was used to export sugar and coal.  Today there is only 600m left of the over 1km pier and it makes a nice walk. 

Tony and I spent a few meters while walking down discussing why there were ‘no diving’ signs along the pier and whether the locals took any notice of them – trying to check whether like their NZ cousins the signs were there to ignore – so options were too shallow, which was actually a good thought as the pier is on a sand bar and at low tide you can actually walk to the end of the pier on the sand.  Another thought was the current and possible rips in the area or just the local council protecting their a….. in case of injury etc.  Well finally we had to ask and yes sort of all the above were good reasons – the one we hadn’t thought of and probably the most compelling reason to NOT jump off the pier was the presence of sharks – lots of them in fact, sounds like a dammed good reason to me.

Wild Horse Mountain, Caloundra, Mary Cairncross Park, Monteville to Mooloolaba

Ok then on the road North - first stop Ikea - omg what an awesome shopping centre.  Started with breakfast for $2.95, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, tomato - not too bad me thinks.

Spent quite a bit of time looking through Ikea and ended up buying some storage bins for George.  Now everything is stashed away nice and tidy.  Next stop Wild Horse Mountain - didnt see any of those but at 123m above sea level we had an amazing view of the surrounding country.  The climb was of course all uphill - a whole dammed 700m of it and as the picture indicate I was hot and sticky at the top (honey how come you got to take photos of me looking gross).

Next stop Colundra, where we visited Kings beach and a shower and a look around.  Fish and chips on the beach for tea before going to find somewhere to sleep for the night.

Next day we started by having a swim in the salt pool by the sea (Tony reckons 20 laps but I think not!!!!) headed off sightseeing, first stop the Hinterlands and Mary Cairncross Park, with awesome views of the Glass house Mountains - a bit foggy though but still pretty amazing.  Poor george there were some pretty steep ups and downs for him to travel on 10 and 12% gradients!!!!

Went for a walk through the rainforest which was really awesome,  saw a pademelon, which is kinda like a wallaby and lots of huge and amazing trees.



Wonga Vine



Cooked up some kangabangas for tea a bit later on, courtesy of the free bbq's and as the name suggests yes they were kangaroo sausages - quite yummy despite the initial caution about eating kangaroo, and very healthy 98% fat free.

Left the park and stopped to see Baron Pocket Dam and Lake - quite an impressive dam if i must say so myself

After leaving the dam we drove up to Kondalilla Falls, got there a bit late to go walking, still getting used to the fact that it is dark at 5.30 - we seem to be loosing lots of daytime.  Spent the night in the car park and got an early walking start the next day -6.20am.  Took us two and half hours to do the 4.6km circuit walk - saw once agin some amazingly huge trees and a small black snake on the track (Tony says it was a red belly black but I sure wasnt going to get close enough to check it out).

Got back to the carpark and there was George waiting patienty for us - still with no friends - I think everyone sleeps late in Australia.  Loaded up and headed off to Mapelton Falls where we saw a huge gorge from the lookout platform - really hard to take photos which did it justice so you will just have to google it and see pro photos.  had breakfast in the car park - our first official on the road breakfast!!

After breakfast we stopped at Montville - a quaint, very pretty, clean arty little town.

Hit the road again and took a wee diversion to the famous Ettamogah Pub and had fries for lunch.  A very cool pub with wall that lean outwards.

Next stop Mooloolaba a beach town, quite nice, quite commercial.